ADVANCED FORMS OF EMPTINESS Handke and Jelinek in Berlin Paul David Young Über Tiere (Concerning Animals), by Elfriede Jelinek, directed by Nicolas Stemann, Deutsches Theater-Kammerspiele, Berlin, May 2007; Spuren der Verirrten (Traces of the Lost), by Peter Handke, directed by Claus Peyman, Berliner Ensemble, Berlin, February 2007. lfriede Jelinek, winner of the 2004 momentarily the identity of the author Nobel Prize for Literature, said and the political concerns that drive her she prayed that her compatriot work. Über Tiere (Concerning Animals) PeterE Handke would receive it instead in the Kammerspiele at the Deutsches and that he deserved it. Seeing plays by Theater in Berlin, begins with the entry both of Austria’s most respected if con- of a handsome, thoughtful-looking troversial living playwrights a few days young man (Sebastian Rudolph) who apart after their 2007 Berlin premieres, shyly takes a seat at a desk and receives I could not help but compare them a letter that he tells us is from Jelinek. and wonder whether Jelinek was right. The contents of the letter, which he At least superficially, one can under- begins to read aloud, seem perhaps to stand Jelinek’s gracious and self-effacing have something to do with an affair, an remarks about the relative worthiness acidic billet doux, and soon the young of her writing compared to Handke’s. man is joined by a young woman who Throughout his career, Handke has might be taken for the aggrieved lover diligently and obstinately pursued a rig- and, likewise seated at a desk, reads on. orously theoretical and intellectual form The role of the woman opens up or, of writing for the theatre. Jelinek’s texts, rather, is duplicated by other women, although somewhat obtuse, have a more seated at desks, reading, as the play liter- obvious political agenda, and because ally unfolds like origami, revealing more of their overt sexual content provide facets, expanding in dimensions, gaining the satisfaction of pornography. She a kind of universality by the duplication celebrates the cheap joke or the clever of gendered representations. pun as part of her style. As in much of her work, Jelinek is here Jelinek’s latest play starts on such a sweet concerned with the inescapable oppres- and enticing note that one could forget sion of women. Her early groundbreak- 76 PAJ 89 (2008), pp. 76–82. © 2008 Paul David Young Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/pajj.2008.30.2.76 by guest on 25 September 2021 ing Was geschah, nachdem Nora ihren the men are themselves inhumanly ani- Mann verlassen hatte (What Happened malistic in the way that they treat the After Nora Left Her Husband), imagined women. The evening descends into a what might have ensued after Nora left drunken, brawling orgy and concludes Ibsen’s doll house. Jelinek’s post-libera- with the anomolous tableau of a middle- tion Nora, trapped in the infantilized aged woman at home. role of seductress and lacking profes- sional skills (except that of dominatrix) The Deutsches Theater production, or the imaginative capacity to establish under the confident and imaginative herself independently, returns in the end direction of Nicolas Stemann who has to her husband. directed three other Jelinek’s plays, never fails to dazzle the eye and utilize the stage Similarly, economics and the histori- space to great effect. The production cal patrimony of power along with the opens up the stage space progressively: delusion of love subjugate the women of after the initial monologue, conducted Jelinek’s Über Tiere, confining them to before a walled-off proscenium, the wall a set of demeaning roles and narrative is pulled away to reveal the additional paths. The unfolding of the play beyond women. A trap door functions as a sort the opening tableau pushes the women of gateway to a fantastical underworld. explicitly into the role of prostitutes and The bordello occupies an elevated area their madam. This is of course a transla- at the rear of the stage. At the conclu- tion by Jelinek of the love relationship sion, the wall is restored; the cast comes that begins the play and conveys her forward intimately toward the audience. cold-eyed look at the meaning of love The costumes are often fanciful enough and its effects on women. The men, to be entertaining by themselves, which including the gentle, sensitive young is fitting since Jelinek in her work man who opens the play, are transformed and public persona has cultivated an into clients in a bordello. On the way ironic fascination with fashion. Video to their roles as clients, however, the projections of a luscious mouth and production takes the men on a detour the cavorting whores and johns whip in gender identity. One of the two male up the frenzy toward the end. The cast actors is introduced first in garish drag from the outstanding ensemble of the and the young man of the opening Deutsches Theater is unfailingly brilliant undergoes an onstage makeover into a and game for whatever humiliations the woman. The women are also given their play demands of them. turn to play at being men. This distribu- tion and redistribution of speaking parts The dynamism and surefootedness of the and gender roles further desentimental- performance that Stemann has achieved izes the brutal text. are especially remarkable given the nature of the text, which is an undifferentiated Gender identities resettle, though, and mass of words without the assignment the men conduct a loud, boorish conver- of roles. It is extremely fragmentary sation in dialect, discussing the physical and often driven by word association virtues of the women they are about to or various kinds of frequently sexual buy at the bordello. These men discuss puns. For example, a frequent and rather the women as if they were animals and sinister joke is the phrase “mit Ohne” YOUNG / Advanced Forms of Emptiness 77 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/pajj.2008.30.2.76 by guest on 25 September 2021 or, literally “with without,” like a menu porary Austrian playwright and novelist item (e.g., with onions), except that here Thomas Bernhard. Jelinek’s defense the “without” means without a condom, seems to be that, like her characters, it that the prostitutes will have sex, for an is impossible for her to escape within the additional fee, without prophylaxis. The framework of language and theatre from repeated phrase “ficken ficken ficken” or the dominance of men. All she can do “fucking fucking fucking” evokes the life is demonstrate this invariable structure of the prostitutes and the repetitious and poke at it humorously. demands of their customers. Über Tiere arises in part from the story of an under- In this abdication, she may not be far age prostitute held as a sex slave and from Peter Handke’s position as illus- compelled to service clients even as she trated in the Berliner Ensemble’s recent is sick and taking antibiotics to combat premiere of his 2006 play Spuren der sexually transmitted diseases. She kills Verirrten (Traces of the Lost). Like Über herself by bashing her face in. Tiere, Spuren also begins on a deceptively familiar and comforting note. Obviously Consistent with most of Jelinek’s other invoking the tradition of German fairy work (e.g., the monologue cycle called tales, a man and a woman leave traces The Princess Plays), the play dispenses behind them as they walk through a for- entirely with character and plot, and we est. They are followed by a numbingly are treated to the voyeuristic enjoyment large number of other pairs who also of the sexual exploitation of women even mark their path. In each case, the traces as the author seems to condemn such are blown away by a strong wind. The behavior. In the performance and nar- message is clear: we will not find our rative components of the text, the men way home and we don’t know where remain the dominant and dominating we’re going. The structure of Spuren figures, the women confined drama- is reminiscent of Handke’s 1992 The turgically and ideologically to inferior Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, a positions throughout. In this respect, play without dialogue in which isolated Über Tiere shares the lusty entertain- figures and sometimes small groups ing political nihilism of, for example, pass across the stage fleetingly. It also Jelinek’s earlier Krankheit oder Moderne incorporates the audience: at the end the Frauen (Sickness or Modern Women), stage instructions, which constitute the which features dominant, though clue- entirety of the play, indicate that one by less male figures and abused women, one members of the audience join the who are vampires. characters/actors on stage. Since Western culture is so fully domi- Compared to Jelinek’s, Handke’s work, nated by sex, Jelinek’s dramaturgy is a dating back to his 1965 Offending the risky business. Although didactically Audience, has a rather more delicately critical, it entertains by virtue of the self-conscious use of theatre and its same graphic images that sell in the modalities as a way of testing the limits popular culture. As she has modestly and purpose of theatre itself, an almost acknowledged, her writing does not rise purely abstract and cerebral inquiry. to the same level of eloquently mordant Indeed, Offending the Audienceis entirely venom as the recently deceased contem- devoted to categorically eliminating 78 PAJ 89 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/pajj.2008.30.2.76 by guest on 25 September 2021 Top: Spuren der Verirrten (Traces of the Lost) by Peter Handke, directed by Claus Peyman, Berliner Ensemble, Berlin.